Masaccio, Holy Trinity (1426-1428) Fresco, 667 x 317 cm, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

Question 1

Q: Where did Masaccio establish himself by the age of 16?

Answer 1

A: Florence, where he was documented as a painter.

Question 2

date, medium, measurement, location

Answer 2

(1426-1428), Fresco, 667 x 317 cm, Santa Maria Novella

Question 3

Q: What is significant about Masaccio’s use of perspective?

Answer 3

A: He was one of the first artists to use scientific perspective, employing vanishing points for greater realism, moving away from the international gothic style

Question 4

Q: Why was Masaccio financially unsuccessful?

Answer 4

A: When he joined the Painter’s Guild in 1422, he could only afford one florin of the six required for initiation.

Question 5

Q: Which artists influenced Masaccio in Florence?

Answer 5

A: Giotto, became friends with Alberti, Brunelleschi, and Donatello.

(Brunelleschi and Donatello made trips to Rome where they experienced, studied and made drawings from Roman ruins firsthand)

Question 6

Q: What knowledge did Masaccio gain from Brunelleschi?

Answer 6

A: Mathematical proportion and principles of scientific perspective.

Question 7

Q: How did Donatello influence Masaccio?

Answer 7

A: Donatello’s classical art led Masaccio away from the Gothic style, inspiring greater realism and weightiness in form.

Question 8

Q: Who commissioned the Holy Trinity, and where is it located?

Answer 8

A: It was commissioned for the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.

they held a prestigeous competition

Question 9

significance of coffered barrel vault and how donatello influenced this

Answer 9

When it was executed, no actual coffered barrel vault had yet been constructed since antiquity.

The architectural setting seems to be based on the niche for Donatello’s St Louis of Toulouse at the Orsanmichele. He was also influenced by Donatello’s sculptures in the plasticity of form we see here).

Question 10

Q: Why is the Holy Trinity considered a significant example of linear perspective?

Answer 10

A: It marks the first use of systematic linear perspective, possibly devised with Brunelleschi’s assistance.

Question 11

Q: In which medium was the Holy Trinity painted?

Answer 11

A: Fresco, a cost-effective form of decoration in 15th-century Florence.

Question 12

Q: When was the fresco rediscovered?

Answer 12

A: In 1861, after being hidden by a Vasari altarpiece and a stone altar.

Question 13

Q: What does the Holy Trinity depict?

Answer 13

A: An illusory chapel with the Trinity: God the Father, Christ on the cross, and the Holy Spirit (a dove above Christ’s head).

Question 14

Q: How are the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist portrayed?

Answer 14

A: Mary gestures to Christ, engaging the viewer, while John stands on the opposite side of the cross.

Question 15

Q: What is depicted at the bottom of the fresco?

Answer 15

A: A skeleton on a sarcophagus with the inscription: “I once was what you are, and what I am you also will be.”

“IO FU[I] G[I]A QUEL CHE VOI S[I]ETE E QUEL CH[’] I[O] SONO VO[I] A[N]C[OR] SARETE” (I once was what you are and what I am you also will be).

Question 16

How is Christ depicted in the Holy Trinity?

Answer 16

A: As dead on the cross, wounds still bleeding (not idealised), emphasizing his humanity and ideal proportions, based on Vitruvius’s measurements.

Question 17

significance of the proportions on the body of christ

Answer 17

*The proportions of the body of Christ were based on Vitruvius’s measurements of ideal man and fit into the compositional squares and circles.

Question 18

Q: How does Mary reflect physical and psychological realism?

Answer 18

A: She appears as an older, tired woman with wrinkled eyes, sacrificing traditional beauty for emotional impact.

traditional representations of Mary as youthful, beautiful, graceful and lofty. Here she is the same scale as the donors (not hierarchical); depicted as an old woman with tired, wrinkled eyes.

Question 19

Q: Who are the patrons, and how are they positioned?

Answer 19

A: Likely the Lenzi or Berti family, depicted kneeling outside the niche, sharing the viewer’s space as representatives of humanity.

There is no Gothic hierarchical scale employed; the patrons share the same scale as the holy figures.

A tomb slab in the aisle in front of the fresco once belonged to the Lenzi family, with the inscription “Domenico di Lenzo, et Suorum 1426”, which is how they have traditionally been identified as the donors.

Question 20

: What does the skeleton symbolize?

Answer 20

A: Adam’s burial at Golgotha, a memento mori, and the Lenzi family’s fictive tomb.

Question 21

how is the skeleton anatomically correct

Answer 21

*The skeleton is the most anatomically correct to date in Italian art, representing the first human, Adam, who was supposedly buried and redeemed at the foot of the cross.

*A memento mori, reminding the viewer of their own mortality

Question 22

Q: What architectural elements are depicted in the Holy Trinity?

Answer 22

A: A Classical barrel vault with Corinthian pilasters and Ionic columns forming a triumphal arch.

. This refers to his triumph over death.

Question 23

Q: How is perspective achieved?

Answer 23

A: Through orthogonals converging at the vanishing point on the step where the patrons kneel, creating trompe l’oeil depth.

Question 24

Q: What philosophical idea does the fresco reflect?

Answer 24

A: “Man is the measure of all things,” combining mathematics and observation with spiritual themes.

Question 25

Q: What symbolic geometric shapes are present in the composition?

Answer 25

Circles: Represent God’s infinity, passing through Christ’s wounds and centered at his navel. Triangles: Represent the Trinity, descending from the upper circle. Squares: Represent life, death, and salvation, framing the skeleton, saints, and Christ.

Question 26

Q: What is the significance of overlapping squares in the composition?

Answer 26

A: They symbolize the process of life, death, and salvation through the ‘Church Triumphant.’

Question 27

Q1: How does Masaccio’s Holy Trinity reflect Humanism?

Answer 27

A: Masaccio’s Holy Trinity reflects Humanism through its realistic depiction of the human figure, use of linear perspective, and emphasis on the individual. The accurate representation of the human form and the inclusion of a donor figure aligns with Humanist ideals, focusing on the dignity of humanity and the natural world.

Question 28

Q3: How did Masaccio’s use of perspective relate to Humanist ideas?

Answer 28

A: The use of linear perspective in Masaccio’s Holy Trinity demonstrates the Humanist ideal of creating harmony and order. By employing perspective, Masaccio not only achieved a more realistic depiction of space but also aligned his work with the Humanist pursuit of intellectual and visual accuracy, drawing upon mathematical principles rooted in classical antiquity.

Question 29

4: What impact did Humanism have on the portrayal of religious figures in Masaccio’s work?

Answer 29

A: In Masaccio’s Holy Trinity, religious figures are depicted in a more humanized and naturalistic manner, influenced by Humanism’s focus on the human experience. The figures, such as Christ, the Virgin Mary, and Saint John, are shown with individual emotion and depth, highlighting the belief that the divine could be portrayed through the lens of human understanding and experience.

Question 30

Q5: How does Masaccio’s Holy Trinity reflect the Renaissance shift from medieval to Renaissance art?

Answer 30

A: Masaccio’s Holy Trinity embodies the Renaissance shift from medieval flatness to the use of perspective, depth, and naturalism. This was in line with Humanist values, which emphasized the study of classical texts, the revival of ancient ideals, and the application of scientific principles to art, leading to a more realistic and intellectual approach to painting.

Question 31

where in the grid

Answer 31

religious painting, florence

Question 32

critical quotes

Answer 32

*Vasari, in his Preface of Lives of the Artists: During this period painting progressed in the same way as sculpture. The superb Masaccio completely freed himself of Giotto’s style and adopted a new manner for his heads, his draperies, buildings, and nudes, his colours and foreshortenings. He thus brought into existence the modern style *Cristoforo Landino (c.1481): he devoted himself solely to the imitation of reality and to relief in figures; he was certainly as good a master of perspective as anyone of those times Vasari describes it “a barrel vault drawn in perspective, and divided into squares with rosettes which diminish and are foreshortened so well that there seems to be a hole in the wall.” ‘Man is the measure of all things’ (Protagoras). According to Vasari, all Florentine painters studied his frescoes extensively in order to “learn the precepts and rules for painting well”.

Question 33

how did massacio influence other artists

Answer 33

* Together with Brunelleschi and Donatello, Masaccio was a founder of Renaissance art. Masaccio’s work exerted a strong influence on the course of later Florentine art and particularly on the work of Michelangelo.

Question 34

how is the influence of giotto seen

Answer 34

His monumental figures are sculpted by light; this approach was first employed by the Florentine Giotto, a century earlier